He also spent a portion of the afternoon in the pit lane, but would eventually re-emerge late on to pump in a best lap of 1min 25.011secs, giving Lotus a much-desired pre-season boost

Maldonado's efforts were enough to unseat long-time leader Kimi Raikkonen from the top of the timesheets in the Ferrari, the former champion commanding an advantage of almost two seconds at one stage before being reeled in as the chequered flag neared.

Having completed only a fairly meagre number of laps in the morning as the team solved various technical issues, Daniel Ricciardo made up for lost time in the afternoon by completing almost 60 laps overall and posting the third fastest time.

Despite only getting his first taste of F1 machinery for 2015 in the afternoon, Sergio Perez was straight back up to speed for Force India in the 2014-specification VJM07, ending up fourth quickest.

The Mexican was given the chance to drive the car after Pascal Wehrlein - who was originally supposed to drive the car all day - was recalled by Mercedes to replace the unwell Lewis Hamilton in the factory car. Hamilton managed 11 laps before calling it a day, with Wehrlein jumping in the W06 to set the ninth best time - a touch slower than what he managed in the Force India.

Having set the pace in the morning, Felipe Nasr endured a bruising afternoon after making contact with Susie Wolff and crashing into the barriers at turn five. Ending Wolff's day early and hampering Nasr's mileage, the Brazilian came back on track in the final minutes, only to stop again at turn nine.

Max Verstappen was the busiest driver of the day, managing 94 laps in the Toro Rosso en route to sixth best, ahead of Jenson Button, whose day started brightly in the McLaren-Honda in terms of lap times, only to stop 21 laps in after a problem with the seal on the MGU-K necessitated an entire power unit replacement.

Despite her early end to the day, Wolff still managed 86 laps in the Williams FW37.